MOTHERS DAY MAGIC

As an industry, we tend to focus on the holiday times that drive our business for the year. When you think about holidays, there are really 4 main holidays and then depending on your market area, the 5th is really a collection of the smaller ones lumped together. The top 4 are Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Prom. Collectively, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Professional Administration Day make up the rest. Christmas is the biggest as it is really almost a 45 day holiday for selling now as it happens earlier and earlier each year. Valentine’s Day is for many the biggest single day for sales while Mother’s Day is spread out over 4 – 5 days. Prom is more about a season depending on where you are in relation to your schools. So as you can tell, Mother’s Day is a very important time to make a positive impact on your customers. Think of it as the ‘Last Harrah’ that has to take you financially through the next 5 months of tighter cash flow and customer contact.
If we look back at Valentine’s Day, there was an air of positive spending so we can look forward to a holiday of positive spending. Most shops beat 2012 sales for Valentine’s Day in 2013, so we are riding the wave of positive spending. Paul Goodman, floral consultant, CPA and Editor of Teleflora’s Floral Finance is optimistic about 2013 Mother’s Day sales. Paul predicts at least a 5% increase in sales for this holiday season based on stock market trends which have been positive for the past six to nine months. SAF predicts that 72% of consumers will purchase some type of floral product and will collectively spend nearly 2 BILLION dollars! Now you need to ask yourself how much of this can I capture.
It is important to remember that not all of these 2 billion dollars is spent on cut flowers alone. 37% is spent on bedding and garden plants, 38% is spent on flowering house plants, and 23% is spent on green plants. While this is a sizeable market, there is still plenty of revenue for cut flowers in vases, and wrapped bouquets. Having floral stylings ready for those customers who want to shop and go is extremely important. The second biggest objection from consumers about flower shops is not having the ability to choose a floral styling and personally deliver it. The first biggest objection is having florists take their phones off the hook to prevent further orders from coming in.
Mother’s Day is just a few short weeks away. It is time to start planning now to be ready for one of the greatest opportunities to help touch the lives of so many customers and help them honor of the greatest institutions! Plan now to be ready in advance for all your customers’ needs and yes, even those last minute delivery requests. Call your Florabundance Account Manager to place your order for the holiday. Visit the website for a great selection of floral and assorted foliage’s to make this holiday a magic one for you and your customers!